Youth Robotics Programs in DC, MD, VA - FIRST Rob

The Tech Turn Up team walked into the Geared Up Celebration at Virginia State University this May having never participated in a FIRST event before. The Celebration is designed exactly for this moment: a culminating showcase for our Geared Up rookie mentor cohort, low pressure by design, where new teams demonstrate what they have built and get paired with veteran teams to carry their growth into year two. Tech Turn Up's robot ran into coding issues. Functions failed. Supplies went missing. By the time they reached the final test round, the day looked nothing like they had imagined.

That is where most stories end. This one was just beginning.

When the Tech Turn Up team needed help, other teams stopped what they were doing and stepped in. People shared parts. People troubleshot the code. Students and mentors from teams Tech Turn Up had never met cheered them through every match. Our Vice President, Shelly Stoddard, told the team, "this is a family." The room proved it. Tech Turn Up walked away from that day not with a trophy, but with something more durable: the recognition that they belonged in this community, a veteran team mentor partnership to carry them into next season, and the confidence that this community would carry them.

That is the story your investment built this year. Not a single robot, not a single trophy, but a regional community of 493 teams, 10,235 students, and 1,748 mentors and coaches who show up for one another across Virginia, Maryland, DC, and West Virginia.

FY26 by the numbers

The 2025–26 season was the strongest in FIRST Chesapeake's history. Across 26 official competitions and dozens of community activations, we welcomed more than 46,000 attendees, mobilized 1,003 unique volunteers across the region, and recorded an estimated 18,912 volunteer hours valued at over $601,000 of donated labor. Our FRC program grew to 118 high school teams. Our FTC program reached 290 middle and high school teams, a 6.8% increase year over year. And our newly seeded FLL Explore program in Maryland served 85 elementary school teams, planting the earliest roots of the pipeline.

Student demographics continue to move in the right direction. Black and African American participation grew from 9% to 12% of registered youth, a three percentage point gain over FY25, reflecting deliberate expansion into the VSU STEM Hub service area and DC schools like Friendship Public Charter School and Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering. Our Women in STEM scholarship saw 45 applicants compete for four awards, the most competitive cycle in program history, and our inaugural She Leads FIRST Award recognized the women mentors who anchor this work.

From rookie to the championship floor

If Tech Turn Up tells the story of who we are, Team 11425 Byteforge tells the story of what is possible. The Colonial Heights, Virginia rookie team entered the season through our Geared Up FRC cohort, supported by mentor matching, structured onboarding, and the Catalyst Program. By April, Byteforge had earned a championship spot as a first-year team, competing at the FRC Chesapeake District Championship at VSU alongside the strongest teams in the region. That trajectory, rookie year through Geared Up support to a District Championship berth, is exactly the proof point that justifies every dollar invested in rookie team launch. It is the difference between a one-time experience and a workforce development pipeline.

Looking ahead to FY27

The work continues. This summer brings our Mentor Conference at James Madison University on August 8 and 9, themed One FIRST, alongside FTC Academy for new coaches across the district. Through our BRIDGES initiative we are working to launch eight new FRC teams across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, expand FTC Geared Up into communities where competitive robotics has been out of reach, and sustain the Southwest Virginia and West Virginia pipelines that have already begun feeding the next generation of teams. We are also in active conversation with several new partners on commitments designed to bring our regional impact to the next level. More to share on those soon.

Thank you for making this possible. Every dollar you contribute helps us launch more teams, train more mentors, and host more events where students discover what they are capable of. What we are building is not robots. It is people.

With gratitude,

Alex Bryant

President, FIRST Chesapeake